September 25, 2017
Zinemaldia 2017
Monica Bellucci, Ricardo Darín and Agnès Varda to receive Donostia Awards at the 65th edition
Javier Bardem, Bérénice Bejo, Steve Coogan, Glenn Close, Penélope Cruz, James Franco, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Benoît Magimel, Arnold Schwarzenegger, winner of the Jaeger-LeCoultre Prize to Latin Cinema, Paz Vega, and Alicia Vikander have also confirmed their presence in San Sebastian.
The actor John Malkovich will preside over the Official Selection Jury, on which he will be accompanied by the actors Dolores Fonzi and Emma Suárez, the filmmaker William Oldroyd, the producer and screenwriter Paula Vaccaro and the cinematographer Fabio Cianchetti.
Three Donostia Awards will be given at the 65th edition of the San Sebastian Festival. As well as acclaimed Argentine actor Ricardo Darín, the Festival will acknowledge the careers of the Italian actress Monica Bellucci and the French filmmaker, Agnès Varda. Over her more than 25 years as an actress, Bellucci has worked with several benchmark moviemakers in both Europe and the USA, including Francis Ford Coppola, Gaspar Noé, the Wachowski sisters, Mel Gibson, Terry Gilliam, Spike Lee, Paolo Virzì, Philippe Garrel, Sam Mendes and Emir Kusturika. For her part, Agnès Varda is a legend of European cinema, whose career has earned her recognition with the top awards at Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Locarno, and from the French Film Academy.
As well as the three Donostia Awards, a long list of actors and directors have confirmed their presence in San Sebastian. To present their films in the Official Selection, the Festival will receive the visit of actor James Franco, who will compete for the Golden Shell with his film The Disaster Artist; Glenn Close, who will close the section with The Wife; Jean Pierre Léaud – the unforgettable Antoine Doinel of Les quatre cents coups / The 400 Blows – who stars in Nobuhiro Suwa’s film (Le lion est mort ce soir / The Lion Sleeps Tonight); Arnold Schwarzenegger, voice of the special screening Wonders of the Sea 3D; and Alicia Vikander, who stars in the opening film, directed by Wim Wenders (Submergence).
Furthermore, some of the most important directors on today’s scene will come to San Sebastian to present their films in the Pearls, Zabaltegi-Tabakalera and Horizontes Latinos sections: Darren Aronofsky, Kantemir Balagov, Robin Campillo, Raymond Depardon, Ildikó Enyedi, Michel Franco, Robert Guédiguian, Todd Haynes, Hirokazu Koreeda, Sebastián Lelio, Martin McDonagh, Janus Metz, Ruben Östlund, Lynne Ramsay, Carlos Saura (in his case for a film about him by Félix Viscarret) and Frederick Wiseman, among others.
Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz, who will attend the closing gala of the Pearls section in the Velodrome (Loving Pablo) and the winner of the Jaeger-LeCoultre Prize to Latin Cinema, Paz Vega, will head the Spanish cinema representation, made up of the cast of El autor / The Motive, featuring Javier Gutiérrez (who will also present Verguënza), María León and Antonio de la Torre; the delegation of La peste / The Plague, headed by Alberto Rodríguez and Paco León; and the star of the co-production Una especie de familia / A Sort of Family, Bárbara Lennie; the couple in Morir / Dying, Marian Álvarez and Andrés Gertrúdix; Elena Anaya, who participates in the special screening accompanying the Donostia Award, La cordillera /The Summit; and the teams of the two premieres in the Velodrome, Jordi Mollà, Karra Elejalde and Unax Ugalde (Operación Concha / Operation Golden Shell) and Javier Cámara, Miren Ibarguren, Gorka Otxoa and Julián López (Fe de etarras / Bomb Scared), among many others.
French cinema too will be strongly represented. In the Official Selection, La douleur / Memoir of Pain will see the visit of director Emmanuel Finkiel and the actors Benoît Magimel (La Haine / The Hate), and Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet (La belle personne / The Beautiful Person); presenting Le lion est mort ce soir / The Lion Sleeps Tonight, Jean Pierre Léaud will be accompanied by his opposite in the film, Pauline Etienne (Eden). In the Pearls section, Léa Drucker (La chambre bleue / The Blue Room) and Denis Ménochet (Inglourious Basterds) embody the parents in Jusqu’à la garde / The Custody, and Jean-Pierre Darrousin, plays one of the three siblings in Guédiguian’s La villa / The House by the Sea. And the actress Bérénice Bejo will present in Savage the film Tout là-haut / To the Top, accompanied by the director, Serge Hazanavicius, and the producers Julie Gayet and Nadia Turincev.
New movie talents will similarly be present at the Festival, not only through the first films present in all of the sections and particularly New Directors, but also through the visit of actors starting out in their careers, such as the leading characters of Marrowbone, Charlie Heaton (Stranger Things, As You Are) and George MacKay (Captain Fantastic); and of Sollers Point, McCaul Lombardi (American Honey); Esther Garrel, who participates twice in the Festival, in L’amant d’un jour / Lover for a Day and Call Me By Your Name; Nahuel Pérez Biscayart (Je suis à toi), in 120 battements par minute / 120 Beats Per Minute; and the young star of Jusqu’à la garde / Custody, Thomas Gioria.